Posts Tagged Carol Stream Fire Chief Bob Hoff

Carol Stream FPD news

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Over a span of about five hours Sunday, Carol Stream firefighters battled a grease fire in an apartment building and a garage fire that spread to a home and displaced a family.

The grease fire started in a kitchen and spread to the attic, living room and hallway leading to the bedrooms of a third-floor unit in an apartment building on the 100 block of Elk Trail. Firefighters were called to the three-story building at 3:32 p.m. and extinguished the blaze in less than 30 minutes. No injuries were reported but several apartments were left with smoke and water damage.

Then, shortly after 8 p.m., firefighters were called to a two-story house on the 1000 block of Oakwood Court where they found heavy fire in an attached garage. Two young children who were in the home with their mother were checked by paramedics, but were not taken to a hospital. Firefighters and paramedics rescued two dogs from the smoke-filled home. The fire damaged a sailboat parked in the driveway and an SUV and extended into the family room and walls of the second-floor bedrooms. The home was left uninhabitable. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation.

“This was just another example of firefighters encountering the many hazards of the profession,” Fire Chief Bob Hoff said. “There is no routine fire. Our troops did a fantastic job.”

thanks Ron

Tags: , ,

2-Alarm fire in Elmhurst, 1-26-17 (part 2)

Photos from Tim Olk of the 2-Alarm commercial fire at 351 N. York Road in Elmhurst (1/26/17)

E-ONE tower ladder working at fire scene

Tim Olk photo

Carol Stream Fire Chief Robert Hoff

Tim Olk photo

Elmhurst FD Tower 2

Tim Olk photo

Stone Park FD Fire Chief Michael Paige

Tim Olk photo

Elmhurst fire trucks at fire scene

Tim Olk photo

firefighters battle fire with multi-versals

Tim Olk photo

two tower ladders working at fire scene

Tim Olk photo

heavy smoke pushes from commercial building fire

Tim Olk photo

Tags: , , , ,

9/11 Anniversary – stories

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Nothing could prepare them for the unthinkable. But as they stood by the rubble, a New York City fire chief introduced them to 16 acres of destruction that once was the World Trade Center. The New York chief laid out a few ground rules when the group arrived at ground zero. Only FDNY crews could move the body of one of their own.

“Your company goes and gets you and brings you out,” said Bob Hoff, now Carol Stream’s fire chief and then a district chief in Chicago,  of a point of pride in the fire service. “And that’s what New York did. They carried their own people out.”

A group of 87 firefighters from Chicago and the suburbs volunteered in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. They took 10- to 12-hour shifts at ground zero and tried to sleep on the sidewalk a few blocks away. And yet, despite the emotional toll, they call it an honor, a privilege to help their friends in New York.

Outside the city’s fire academy, they packed trucks and vans with gear, saws, bottles of water. By a stroke of luck, Chicago firefighters had switched into new breathing apparatus. Hoff and his crew brought the older style, the same kind used by a New York department devastated by the loss of lives and equipment in the collapse of the twin towers.

“We’d come back from the site and go to where we were stationed, and there would be nurses there just to clear your eyes out, all the dust in your eyes,” Hoff said.

Hoff also speaks of trying to find the good after a tragedy. When he was 5, his father, a Chicago battalion chief, was killed battling a fire in an apartment building on Valentine’s Day 1962.

“You can have grief, but your life goes on. You’ve got to make something positive out of things,” Hoff said. “I know every one of those guys who were killed were probably thinking that for their families, their wives.

After five days, they headed home to Chicago. Hoff wished they “could have done more.” Schneidwind was “heartbroken” to leave. Both knew the job was far from over.

thanks Dan

Tags: , , , ,

Carol Stream Fire District news

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Carol Stream firefighter-paramedics will receive 2.5 percent annual salary increases under a tentative three-year contract agreement union members have ratified, which also would give lieutenants 2.75 percent pay raises in each year of the deal, retroactive to June 1.

Carol Stream Fire Protection District trustees are expected to approve the proposed contract on Aug. 8.

Earlier this month, 41 of the union’s 46 members voted in favor of ratifying the agreement, said Lt. Rick Bonk, president of the Carol Stream Firefighters Association Local 3192.  Bonk called the proposed contract a fair agreement that also would increase an education allowance — by $500 to $1,500 — for training seminars and classes.

Negotiations began in March and a federal mediator later facilitated a bargaining session in early July that got the bulk of economic issues settled.

The board also signed a three-year contract with newly appointed Fire Chief Bob Hoff that awards a $135,000 base salary. Each year of the agreement, starting next June, trustees will review his pay and consider adjustments.

Tags: , , , , , ,